World PvP: Raw uninhibited pvp with many factors at play.
Dueling: No better way to learn classes and their weaknesses / strengths than this.
BG: till you want to rip your eyes out. Learn that being a "Hero" isn't always the best way to win.
Arena: Nothing makes you focus harder than this group-up.
Live streams: You can pick-up quite the tips and tricks from some of the top players in the world. This is basically like your research portion of PvP, .

you need to know every ability everyone has and when they're about to use it
helps to play every spec/class for yourself, read up and get the right addons.
and then to be great you gotta learn how to win-trade and queue dodge

Continuing to duel people is the best way to get better...there is also this great addon called GladiatorlosSA It gives you vocal queues of important spells and abilities cast by nearby enemies. It will let you know when crowd controls are happening, defensive and offensive cooldowns are being used, healers using mana cooldowns, or other important things. This will change your life it did mine...

Ignore all of the people telling you to watch livestreams and become a slave to these twitch heroes. The best way to get good at pvp fast is to surround yourself with arrogant players and become an arrogant player yourself despite being average or terrible. Nobody wants to play with a weak minded person that always claims that they want to improve or say they suck. Just keep acting like you're invincible and you will end up with better players and get better. This game is more about socially fitting in than it does with individual skill.

My advice would be to start out lying about your 3v3 rating. The wrong thing to do is to chat in trade about how you're new at pvp and want to play with other people to learn. Bam, you just put yourself on the bad list of the pvp community. An example of this would be something like this...

"New pvper LF other new players to help eachother learn."

Doing this not only puts you on the bad list but also hinders your ability to get better. You will most likely end up playing with people who have no idea how to play the game and will never improve. The only way to improve in this game is to play with better people who indirectly carry you and treat you like a bitch. Now let me give an example of a correct trade chat request.

"1950 rated 3v3 rated Mage who has 2.4k on other account LF GOOD Resto Shaman. Don't be bad and don't suck."

This is the perfect one right here. 1950 is a good rating to lie about considering its low enough that most people won't bother checking your achievements and high enough that people who are 2k and above might offer to play with you for a little bit because their main mage is not on. Adding the "Don't be bad and don't suck" is a good way to speak their language and most good players will assume that you don't like bads and have an arrogant attitude. This is a good thing.

As soon as you get into a group with superior players, never ever show any form of weakness while playing. The worst thing you can do is say "I'm sorry" if they call you out on something. That's a slippery slope to becoming the bitch of the group and most players don't want to play with "bads" who screw up all the time. Every time someone calls you out on something whether its right or wrong, just rechallenge them with something made up that they did wrong. Never defend what you did, just keep pressing the attack on what others did wrong.

This constant infighting will eventually help you to form a bond with your team mates. Eventually they will tell their friends about you and soon you will meet different people who you can play with as soon as you get on. Playing with multiple amounts of people will enable you to move up the social hierarchy and help you become a better player. As soon as you hit a rating benchmark such as 2.2k, stop playing with the lower people you once played with and move up to the bigger fish in the food chain. Just keep using people and don't have any remorse for people who fall behind.

Don't buy guides, don't watch others play. Just have a basic understanding of the game and follow the steps that I laid out above.

I've been playing this game for about 7 years now. And i've never really got into PvP. Ofcourse i did a few BG's, and i've done maybe about 50 arena's in my entire wow carreer. I've allways had the feeling i sucked at pvp, and never gonna be good at it (for that reason i didnt play alot, and didnt find it that fun to do).

At this point im leveling a mage. With the sole intention to play alot of PvP and get good at it. But what is the best aproach for it? I play alot of starcraft at masters level, and i only got good at it by practicing, watching replays, understand your mistakes. How to do that with PvP? Watching class guides helps a little to understand your class, but PvP (especially arena) is so much more than just knowing your class.

So i would like to get a few tips from you guys, how did you guys get better? i mean, you didnt start playing and had 2.4k raiting right away right?

please share your thoughts/ways of doing it!

thx!!

What helped me a lot was duelling people outside org. If a player beat me I asked them a few questions on how to counter or what to do when he uses X or Y. Most are willing to help in a friendly way TBH random bgs don't learn you a lot. It's just follow the zerg with the rest of your team.

Find some people that have positive attitudes about the game, play with them and get better. Learning pvp takes experience that most people don't have the patience to learn, but that's mainly blizzards fault with the entry level to pvp being painful. Once you get a basic understanding of pvp, then watch vids to gain more knowledge. The most underrated aspect of pvp is learning how to play your class. Know how to do good damage; moreover, know all your other abilities as well too. It probably takes more knowledge to be a successful pvper than pver.

Keybind, and possibly get a gaming mouse with lots of buttons. You need to practice until the bindings are etched into muscle memory.

Atm im Using a deathadder. Which is the best mouse i've ever owned. But should i get rid it of and get a naga? i think i got enough keykinds of my keyboard (playing starcraft aswell, can reach all over the keyboard :P). Also i bind with CTRL and ALT allready in PvE.

Atm im Using a deathadder. Which is the best mouse i've ever owned. But should i get rid it of and get a naga? i think i got enough keykinds of my keyboard (playing starcraft aswell, can reach all over the keyboard :P). Also i bind with CTRL and ALT allready in PvE.

Keep using the same mouse. There is nothing wrong with having almost all of your keybinds on your keyboard and maybe a few for MwU and MwD with the side buttons. The mouse is better suited for camera control and even sometimes movement. Having 30 buttons on the side of the mouse will take too much time getting used to for no gain of getting better.

Atm im Using a deathadder. Which is the best mouse i've ever owned. But should i get rid it of and get a naga? i think i got enough keykinds of my keyboard (playing starcraft aswell, can reach all over the keyboard :P). Also i bind with CTRL and ALT allready in PvE.

Nope, the razer deathadder is a fine mice. Using the left handed edition myself, never have trouble with it

Ignore all of the people telling you to watch livestreams and become a slave to these twitch heroes. The best way to get good at pvp fast is to surround yourself with arrogant players and become an arrogant player yourself despite being average or terrible. Nobody wants to play with a weak minded person that always claims that they want to improve or say they suck. Just keep acting like you're invincible and you will end up with better players and get better. This game is more about socially fitting in than it does with individual skill.

My advice would be to start out lying about your 3v3 rating. The wrong thing to do is to chat in trade about how you're new at pvp and want to play with other people to learn. Bam, you just put yourself on the bad list of the pvp community. An example of this would be something like this...

"New pvper LF other new players to help eachother learn."

Doing this not only puts you on the bad list but also hinders your ability to get better. You will most likely end up playing with people who have no idea how to play the game and will never improve. The only way to improve in this game is to play with better people who indirectly carry you and treat you like a bitch. Now let me give an example of a correct trade chat request.

"1950 rated 3v3 rated Mage who has 2.4k on other account LF GOOD Resto Shaman. Don't be bad and don't suck."

This is the perfect one right here. 1950 is a good rating to lie about considering its low enough that most people won't bother checking your achievements and high enough that people who are 2k and above might offer to play with you for a little bit because their main mage is not on. Adding the "Don't be bad and don't suck" is a good way to speak their language and most good players will assume that you don't like bads and have an arrogant attitude. This is a good thing.

As soon as you get into a group with superior players, never ever show any form of weakness while playing. The worst thing you can do is say "I'm sorry" if they call you out on something. That's a slippery slope to becoming the bitch of the group and most players don't want to play with "bads" who screw up all the time. Every time someone calls you out on something whether its right or wrong, just rechallenge them with something made up that they did wrong. Never defend what you did, just keep pressing the attack on what others did wrong.

This constant infighting will eventually help you to form a bond with your team mates. Eventually they will tell their friends about you and soon you will meet different people who you can play with as soon as you get on. Playing with multiple amounts of people will enable you to move up the social hierarchy and help you become a better player. As soon as you hit a rating benchmark such as 2.2k, stop playing with the lower people you once played with and move up to the bigger fish in the food chain. Just keep using people and don't have any remorse for people who fall behind.

Don't buy guides, don't watch others play. Just have a basic understanding of the game and follow the steps that I laid out above.

This was interesting write-up! but i recognise alot. I almost did the same thing when i wanted to start raiding, and wanted to get in a good guild. In tbc, there were no Achy's, so filling in apply's, and answering questions like: "what is your progress so-far" allways ended up making up a few things to get in.

I'll definatly keep all these points in mind. Surrounding yourself with the right people is mostly 50% of the work. When spend alot of time playing with time, you'll improve alot faster than playing on your own, or playing with people that are on the same level as you are.

This was interesting write-up! but i recognise alot. I almost did the same thing when i wanted to start raiding, and wanted to get in a good guild. In tbc, there were no Achy's, so filling in apply's, and answering questions like: "what is your progress so-far" allways ended up making up a few things to get in.

I'll definatly keep all these points in mind. Surrounding yourself with the right people is mostly 50% of the work. When spend alot of time playing with time, you'll improve alot faster than playing on your own, or playing with people that are on the same level as you are.

Thx for your input!

The problem is if you over state you abilities and people figure it out, then your f&*ked.

You'd have better luck running an OP comp like thug cleave, blowing up someone in the first few moments to win. That way you'd actually have the achievement to use the next season. It will also give you some exposure to the higher end of arena.

Learn all the abilities of every class, easy if you just play a decent amount of pvp. Helps to play the flavor of the month.

No really, it doesn't. If you want to become better, it's better to play a rather underpowered class as you'll have to work harder to compete with others. Being overpowered and having little problem with other people doesn't really help if you want to improve.

Learn all the abilities of every class, easy if you just play a decent amount of pvp. Helps to play the flavor of the month.

Right now i'm leveling a mage. But that is purely because i got told that a mage has been viable every pvp season. I don't think it really matters which class you play, since there are alot of other factors like reactiontime, positioning, anticipating etc. I'll just play a shitload of bgs to start with, get my gear, try to find some good people around me, and start playing alot of pvp i guess

found a few quite helpfull pvp video's that cover the basics of arena, and that will definatly help alot!

Atm im Using a deathadder. Which is the best mouse i've ever owned. But should i get rid it of and get a naga? i think i got enough keykinds of my keyboard (playing starcraft aswell, can reach all over the keyboard :P). Also i bind with CTRL and ALT allready in PvE.

No need. I got a mouse with 5 buttons and I use Xmouse software to bind mouse button 4 to shift and mouse button 5 to alt. I got around 60 keybinds on my monk all very easy to reach

Healer: WPvP is awesome. Go pick fights. Make them attack you. Learning healing in a live (non-duel) environment will help you cause you need to heal to live. You will learn really fast what works and what doesn't. Largest misconception is mana management. Most PvP encounters (aside from rated anything) are best handled by seeing how much mana you can burn through. unless you are going to be in a super long fight, you will likely die before you use all of your mana so use as much as you can before you die.

They are cheaper alternatives to a naga and I know quite a few people who play with dell mouse and are 2200 rated+.

You're right except for 2 things.

1. My name is spelt "God" not "Loucious-sama".
2. I'm not a man, because man is inherently flawed. I am in fact a being so far beyond your comprehension that archaic constraints like flesh, blood, time and consequently, gender, have no meaning to me.

I wouldn't really suggest rolling a mage to practise PvP with. But that's just my suggestion.

The real way to get better in PvP is like everybody has said so far: Do A LOT of PvP, whether it be arena, bgs, wpvp, duels or my favourite way of actually learning and utilizing my class: Solo raids/high level dungeons.

Another thing you might be doing currently is to not focus so much on your actionbars. That's what helped me get into a better state of mind for PvP - Watching my enemies more carefully and watching the middle of my screen.